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Monday, 16 March 2015

Digimon Marathon: Digimon Data Squad: #BlameKurata

One problem I see with projects, in particular fan works, is
the poor combination of either parts of franchises, or franchises completely.
It’s not something I see often enough to be a large problem, but when I find
one, it really stands out, like the subject of this review, Digimon Data Squad.

Set in once again, a new universe, Digimon are starting to
break out of the Digital World and cause chaos in the real world. To counter
this, a team is put together that goes by the name DATS. All members of DATS
are partnered with a Digimon, and must stop the ones breaking free by restoring
them to Digi Eggs and teleporting them back to the Digital World. Simple
enough? Yeah... it doesn’t stay that way... turns out that this whole mess
started because of an expedition to the Digital World, which led to the
fracture of the peace, and now members of both sides want to eliminate the
other permanently. One by going on a mass genocide, turning everything into a
army of weapons, the other by forcing the worlds to collide... For kids!!! If
you’re getting Tamers flash backs from this, you’re not the only one, but I
said that this was a combination, so what’s the other?

There are three main Digi Destined, eventually four, but the
focus is kept on just the three, Marcus, Thomas and Yoshi , all of whom are
basically older, version two’s of Digi Destined of the past, mainly Tai, Matt
and Sora. Yep, the other half of the combination is Digimon Adventure. The
reason why I say this is, aside from the personalities being more “mature” versions
of Tai, Matt and Sora, its a connection I also see in their partner Digimon.
You’ve got another Agumon for Marcus, who digivolves into a Greymon with more
spikes, a not MetalGreymon named RizeGreymon (yes, its Rize not Rise)and then
not WarGreymon in the form of ShineGreymon. Tomas’s Gaomon who’s a not Gabumon, not Garurumon in
the form of Gaogamon, what would happen if WereGarurumon and Embor had a child
and tried Robotasizing it in the form of MachGaogamon, then... the only one
that breaks my comparison, MirageGaogamon. Then we have for Yoshi, with not
Palmon (ok, so she has a version two of Mimi’s Digimon, the point still
stands), Togamon’s Sunflower of a sister, Not Lilymon and then, even though it
wasn’t in the show, the exact same Mega level in the form of Rosemon. I can’t
give them valid personality analysis because I cannot see them as anything
other than older versions of Tai, Matt and Sora (especially for Yoshi, who's voice by Coleen O'Shaughnessey, Sora's voice actor). Another complaint I have about
them is that “older” part. While sources I’ve found say otherwise, to me,
Marcus, Thomas and Yoshi are all in their 17- early 20’s, Yoshi is even seen
driving (she’s the only one to show that she’s 18, apparently Thomas and Marcus
are 14, to which I say

While I wouldn’t do this normally, one of the major villains
is Akahiro Kurata, who you can pretty much say is responsible for almost, if
not everything wrong in this world. Millions of Digimon are killed and turned
into Digimon killing robots? Blame Kurata. Marcus has father issues? Blame
Kurata. The Digital World is about to crash into the planet? Ok technically
it’s another villain, but it’s in response to Kurata’s actions so blame Kurata.
People can’t let a entertainment medium be a entertainment medium and trust
people are smart enough to not replicate the actions they see? Blame Kurata.
Trains not running? Blame Kurata. Department cuts to almost every department in
Australia and National hardware upgrade is getting a downgrade? Blame Kura...
Oh wait...

While I like the animation and the soundtrack, everything else has already been done before. Another death of a Leomon that had time for the audience to grow attached to... unless they learned from Tamers. Burst mode is nothing spectacular and feels like a downgrade in comparison. That and Data Squad is the series I struggle to sit through because, again, I've already seen all of this done before, with much better characters. Nothing except for Kurata sticks out for me. But with that, its almost time to end the Digimon Matathon with Digimon Fusion Season 1. See ya on Friday.